Halo: Second Contact
by Helezhelm
Summary: What if Halo universe collides with Mass Effect universe! How would System Alliance among Council Citadel races react to another human race in other galaxy? We only will find out in upcoming fanfiction!
1. Prologue

April 28th, 2583

LOCATION: UNIDENTIFIED SYSTEM NEAR THE GALACTIC CORE OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY, APPROXIMATELY 10,000 LIGHT-YEARS FROM SOL SYSTEM.

After ten days of Slip-space traveling, UNSC _Breslow, Grafton _and _Glorificus, _two _Strident_-class heavy frigate and an _Autumn_-class heavy cruiser tasked with the exploratory missions to scout ahead for new systems or possible new Halo arrays to seize to prevent Covenant Remnants using it. While in transition of FTL travel, UNSC _Glorificus _being flagship of this exploratory battle-group, there is a grizzled figure sitting in the chair, patiently waiting for his battle-group to exit from the Slip-Space travel since ten days.

Immediately, the light flicked to life in holodeck, revealing a Greek warrior form. "Captain Reynard, Slip space transition is about to finish in exactly less than a minute." Greek warrior chimed in.

"Good, Troy." Captain Reynard affirmed. "Make sure our shields are up, weapons hot and spin the MAC in case if we have any possible hostiles in new system, relay same orders to _Breslow _and _Grafton_ as well!" He ordered.

"Done." Troy replied.

Prior exiting from the FTL travel, three ships exited from the bluish portal, towards to the void of the space. _Glorificus _moved farther than two heavy frigates, towards to the ice-covered ball is mysteriously floating near the super-massive black hole (same one as you saw in Interstellar movie)

"Sir, that ice-covered ball is somehow surrounding the artificial object, and according to our scans, it is giving large amount of dark energy for some odd reason." Troy replied. "Also, the distance between that super-massive black hole and artifact is roughly a half light year or so, that artifact is in no danger of being sucked into the event horizon of super-massive black hole."

"I see, move us closer to the artifact and get our eggheads to investigate that artificial object to find out what is it." Captain Reynard ordered. "Also I want UNSC _Breslow _and _Grafton _to surround that artifact and be lookout in case if there is Covenant remnants lurking around."

The green holoIDs on holodisplay from the desk blinked twice from two frigates, signaling 'affirmative' to his order. _Breslow_ and _Grafton_ moved around the ice-covered ball, roughly three hundred thousand kilometers away, while _Glorificus _moved closer, roughly a hundred thousand kilometer to start studying the odd artifact inside. In bridge of _Glorificus, _a young female scientist named Dr. Addison came in after exiting from the elevator, walked towards to the chair of Captain Reynard.

"What can you depict those object, Doctor?" Captain Reynard asked.

"Hard to tell, as that artificial object is not definitely Forerunner or Covenant, but I can't see it clearly as it is covered by several mile thick ice ball enclosing it. There is other way to melt it or something?" Dr. Adison asked.

"It is a possible to use a nuclear warhead to melt the ice off, to allow them to break off by firing few rounds of pulse lasers." Troy answered. "Also I have attempted to access the object's system but due to that thick ice surrounding it, I cannot do anything much."

Captain Reynard thought for a few minutes then sighed afterwards. "All right, I will have to do it, so I want _Breslow _and _Grafton _to bug out, I'm going to authorize a 15 megaton HENYA-class nuclear warhead to detonate on that ice ball. Arm that nuke, weapons officer." He ordered as weapons officer confirmed his order then typed the code to activate the nuclear warhead.

"Troy, get us some safe distance then launch a nuke at it!" He ordered. The ship rumbled in life as it started to propel away from the ice-enclosed ball.

"Fire the nuclear warhead!" He barked as the ship rumbled again, an nuclear missile launched from their pod, then sped rapidly towards to the ice-enclosed ball. As the missile impacted the ball, it engulfed the ball in massive nuclear fireball for several seconds then cooled off. "Report!" Captain Reynard ordered.

"Captain, the nuclear warhead has melt most of icy layers off, there is one layer left, it is slowly breaking off, and you do not need to fire its pulse lasers at it as it will fall off shortly." Troy chimed in. Few minutes later, the final layer of ice has fallen off or floated away, revealing a fifteen kilometer long metallic object in length, while rings itself are five kilometer in diameter, slowly rotating itself then it rotated rapidly, generating bluish energy.

"Captain Reynard, the energy levels are off the charts! It's generating some kind of energy in that artificial object, sir!" An ensign yelled from his console beeping violently.

"I want this ship to be backed away yesterday!" Captain Reynard ordered loudly as the ship rumbled to life again, propelling itself away from the object rapidly. "Troy, can you determine what it is doing? Are this object as weapon?" Captain Reynard asked.

"After the object was stripped out from its icy coverage, I was able to enter in their systems and it is called 'Mass Relays', an object designed to propel star-ships across thousands of light years in seconds, as it actually lightens the ship's mass to nothing to allow mass relay to "sling" the ship at impossibly velocity of speed to propel. Its origins is vague at best but it was built by an ancient civilization, younger than Forerunners, as it is other race known as Protheans. Reasons it was left there is unknown currently, sir." Troy explained. "According to the archives, it was stated that this is only relay in this galaxy, as it leads to other galaxy, as this relay is dubbed as trans-galactic FTL relay. Our best method to find out where it leads is to send a probe, as we have superluminal communications, it should be non-issue for probe to respond to us even in trans-galactic distance."

"All right, send those information to FLEETCOM and HIGHCOM over Reach and Earth, please. Also notify them that I am going to send a probe to find out then await the orders from higher-ups, Troy." Captain Reynard ordered.

"Done, the message sent and a probe is sent as well." Troy chimed in. _Glorificus _slowly moved closer, firing the probe bay to unleash one probe, to move towards to the relay. The probe moved through the side of the relay, bluish energy immediately enclosed the probe and propelled it, disappeared from the sight from the battle-group.

"Report, please." Captain Reynard ordered.

"Roger… wait, according to probe's latest data transmission, it appears that it arrived at an uncharted system then it used deep space scan, it confirms that probe is in other galaxy. It appears that probe is in Andromeda galaxy, approximately 2.5 million light years away!" Troy answered. "With our fastest FTL speed clocked at 1,000 light year per day, it would take 6.8 years to arrive from here to that galaxy as this relay propelled the probe to other galaxy in about several minutes or so."

"My god… that is big discovery ever! This 'mass relay' propelling the ships across millions of light years in matter of minutes!" Dr. Addison drooled. "This has to be greatest discovery ever in humanity history! Every scientists, you name it, will be flocking over there!" She practically squealed at the discovery. Captain Reynard was speechless at this discovery as well, same for most of crews on _Glorificus, Breslow _and _Grafton. _

Immediately, the top secret transmission came through for Captain Reynard, and he opened it then sighed afterwards. "I just received the orders from higher-ups, UNSC are sending Fifth Fleet under Admiral Lasky to accompany this space and investigate this object further and also we received the order to go through relay and find any interesting information to bring it back to FLEETCOM and HIGHCOM. So, _Breslow _and _Grafton _form up near my ship in pincer formation, we are going in!" Captain Reynard ordered.

Two UNSC Frigates rapidly moved towards to _Glorificus_ and formed up as pincer tactic via side-to-side. "Make sure our shields are at maximum and give me a hundred percent to the engines!" Captain Reynard ordered. Three ships started to move towards, in high speed, through the side of the relay, bluish energy enclosed three ships and propelled them across the galaxy.

Three ships exited from the FTL via intergalactic relay and moved towards to the probe's location. "Status report, please." Captain Reynard ordered.

"Everything's green, sir. Slight drain on shields, operational at 98%. Seems that when we go through relay, it drains our shield slightly, sir." Diagnostic officer answered.

"Good, where is our location and how far we are from our probe, Troy?" Captain Reynard asked.

"We are in Andromeda Galaxy, as this unidentified cluster, we are approximately 5 billion kilometers from the star classified under F classification, with four planets orbiting them." AI Troy explained. "Basically, we are on edge of unidentified system, and further data from probe shows that two planets are in habitable zone, one are garden world with high percentage of nitrogen and oxygen. Also, another in habitable zone is closely similar to Mars with high amount of carbon dioxide and helium but it can be terraformed in few years to be live-able for us then last two planets are too hot and too cold, as one is too close to star with thin atmosphere of xenon/hydrogen and other is icy rock planet with thin atmosphere of argon and methane."

"Sir! There's three unidentified vessels headed for our location, according to the scans, two are corvette-sized ship, approximately 232 meters long and one some kind of light cruiser sized ship, approximately 707 meters length, their design doesn't match our UNSC database, so it's likely first contact situation, sir!" Sensor Ensign bellowed.

"All battle stations! Charge our MAC, ready our missiles and pulse lasers in case! Meanwhile, approach them slowly and hail them afterwards!" Captain Reynard barked in orders.

Three ships started to move slowly towards to the incoming unknown vessels and they were in for surprise, as it will change the galaxy at large…


	2. Chapter 1

April 28th, 2183

SSV _London_

Captain Henderson in his System Alliance navy uniform, sipping his coffee as his 12th flotilla group, part of System Alliance Fifth Fleet under Admiral Hackett were tasked with patrolling the unexplored system to keep watch out for possible piracy actions and Geth activity since Geth tried to invade Citadel as Admiral Hackett used his Fifth fleet to assist with defending Destiny Ascension from its destruction, sacrificing a third of his fleet for it.

"Captain Henderson, we have three unidentified vessels coming around at edge of the unexplored system! There is two cruiser-sized ship, approximately 575 meters long and one dreadnought-sized vessel, approximately 1.4 kilometers long, it's larger than Destiny Ascension, sir!" Sensor Ensign bellowed in panic as the sensor were beeping loudly. "Sir, there is no reading of Eezo on those ships!"

_How? How can they can move their large ships without any trace of Eezo? They must have some kind of technology to allow them to move so quickly? Perhaps fusion reactors or some kind of anti-matter reactors?_Captain Henderson wondered. _Those technology would be extremely valuable to us if we can get it._

"Get us to battle formations and face those new ships and also prepare the first contact package, we don't want to end up to bad first contact with Turians, men!" Captain Henderson bellowed. His flotilla stirred to life, moving towards to the new vessels appeared at the sector near them to make first contact.

"Sir, we're getting a hail from them, it looks like first contact package!" Ensign yelled.

"Play the hail, Ensign." Captain Henderson ordered. The video screen showed the human figure with different uniform in different bridge that has astonished the crews of SSV _London. _Same can be said for crews on UNSC _Glorificus. _The human figure in uniform stuttered in a few seconds then regained his composure, began to speak:

"This is Captain Reynard, commanding officer of UNSC Cruiser _Glorificus_, under United Nation Space Command, consisting of military branch, economical branch and social branch in United Earth Government. We come in peace, as we are only exploring the area as we came through the mass relay from other galaxy."

Captain Henderson wouldn't believe his ears… another human nation from other galaxy and especially he said his ship, dreadnought sized, are merely cruiser. How larger ships would be classified as dreadnought? Then he gained his composure then gathered few thoughts then cleared his throat afterwards.

"This is Captain Henderson, commanding officer of SSV Cruiser _Logan, _under System Alliance Navy. We are pleased to see that you come in peaceful intentions and I must ask you, how it is possible for you to be from other humans as we thought we were only humans in this galaxy as we are allied with other species?" Captain Henderson asked. Genuine shock came to the crew of UNSC _Glorificus_ were there.

"We thought same thing, as well, we thought we were only humans in our galaxy and are also allied with other races as well!" Captain Reynard exclaimed. "Perhaps we should meet to discuss about possible negotiations?"

"Sure, what I should do?" Captain Henderson asked.

"You can send your shuttle towards to UNSC _Glorificus, _as my docking officer will direct you to our hanger to allow your shuttle to land. I'll see you there." Captain Reynard replied. "Security escorts is permitted as well."

"Lieutenant Jameson, you have this ship." Captain Henderson ordered as he decided to walk towards to the elevator, ordered four Alliance Marines to go with him as security escort. Arriving at the hanger of cruiser, seeing the Kodiak shuttle prepped for lift off towards to the meeting point.

"Pilot, get us to that cruiser and await for docking officer's orders to dock in." Captain Henderson ordered.

"Yes, sir!" A pilot saluted as lifting the shuttle off and traveled towards to the cruiser itself.

"Come in, Alliance shuttle, you may enter at dock A1, it is your right side, at end of the docking bay, I'll upload an navpoint on your computer." Docking officer replied.

"Roger, I see it, entering at the dock A1 at right now." A pilot answered as landing in the dock A1. Captain Reynard with his escort were waiting in hanger until he received the message from his AI, stating that he should not introduce his AI accomplice, as there is Council Citadel outlawing the AIs due to Geth issue as Troy accessed to the database and processed everything so it will be forwarded to the HIGHCOM and FLEETCOM, so Captain Reynard decided to keep his AI in secret for now.

After landing at the dock A1, the doors of the shuttle wheezed open, revealing Captain Henderson in his navy uniform with two golden bars on his both shoulders, with golden liners throughout his blue uniform with four armored Marines, assault rifles lowered across their chests. It is met by Captain Reynard with his four ODSTs, with their assault rifles.

"Hello, Captain Henderson, pleasure to meet another human in other nation after all. Shall we head to conference room in few decks up?" Captain Reynard shook his hands.

"Likewise, it is nice to see another human being again as well, pleasure to meet you in person." Captain Henderson politely replied.

After arriving at the conference room, both captains sat down as their security escort put their weapons in their back and at ease position. "First thing, I should explain how we have arrived at here, Captain Henderson." Captain Reynard replied as Captain Henderson stood at attention, eager to hear his story.

"In April 28th, 2583, the battle-group consisting of two frigates and a cruiser were tasked with exploratory mission to find any artifacts or objects that belonged to other ancient civilization to ensure that it does not befall in wrong hands, we traveled about ten thousand light years from a colony world to galactic core in ten days in our FTL, we have discovered inactive mass relay located in the galactic core, according to our scientists, it was only relay in our galaxy and it is designated as trans-galactic FTL relay, so we were ordered by our higher-ups to explore the galaxy after utilizing this relay then we met you." Captain Reynard continued on.

_What?! Ten thousand light year in ten days? That is roughly a thousand light year per day with their FTL method... my god!_Captain Henderson wondered.

"Interesting, so you discovered a trans-galactic relay, that is unheard of at here, since we only have mass relays for local FTL travel. In fact, there is two types of relays- primary relays for long distance jumps (thousands of light years range) and secondary relay for short jumps (hundreds of light years range). But a trans-galactic relay? At here? That is huge discovery for us as well. I will have to forward this information to our higher-ups and inform Council Citadel as well." Captain Henderson sounded impressed by the story from UNSC officer.

"Here's unclassified information about our nation so you can forward to your superiors and see what they want to do with negotiations in future." Captain Reynard handed out the data pad to him. "This will let Systems Alliance and Council Citadel learn about us so they can prepare for negotiations at here. It would take two weeks us to prepare the negotiations, we will contact you to meet us at disclosed location. If you need us to meet with Citadel, please inform us, we will plan in ahead of time as well."

"Thank you for this data pad, I'll make sure it gets forwarded to our higher-ups immediately." Captain Henderson replied as shaking the hands with UNSC officer. "Someday I hope I would meet you again in person." Captain Henderson left the conference room with his escort.


	3. Chapter 2

April 30th, 2583

LOCATION: REACH AT EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM, CITY: NEW ALEXANDRIA, FLEET COMMAND HEADQUARTER.

In the conference room, the holodeck hummed to the life, showing the AI figure. "Hello, sirs, here's the data from Captain Reynard in his exploratory mission in the galactic core, as you can see that he has made first contact with other species but to our surprise, there was another human race in another galaxy." Serenity replied. "Another human nation in different galaxy is called System Alliance, rising galactic power among other species under Citadel."

"Please explain about Citadel, Serenity." Fleet Admiral Hood asked.

"Citadel is a seat of galactic power across the galaxy, handled by main three super powers (among adding fourth one), starting with Asari, Turians, Salarians and finally humanity, they were responsible for upholding laws and protecting its citizens from any possible attacks from enemies. Also, they use four councilors as main representatives of their respective nations to negotiate on their behalf when they meet with other new species." Serenity answered.

"At right now, the Citadel is guarded by inter-species fleet, consisting of Turians, Asari, Salarian and Humans. According to the database, Asari is designed for diplomacy relations/negotiations, Turians as military operations and Salarians as intelligence/scientific developments or research. Humans are all rounded in their respective skills."

"Additionally, the Citadel has several strict laws that would potentially restrict us if we decide to join their council- for example, outlaw of Artificial Intelligence due to their paranoia of A.I going berserk (look at Geth history)." Serenity continued on.

"This law would be a problematic for us, as we have been using A.I's for centuries. We will have to figure out on how to negotiate on this if we ever decide to meet with Council in future." Fleet Admiral Harper chimed in.

"Agreed." From various council members.

"Anymore to add, Serenity?" Hood asked.

"Yes, there is other treaty that would restrict our military strength, it is called as Treaty of Farixen, limiting the build of "dreadnoughts" (an kilometer long warship) in various citadel races, for example, Turians were allowed to build five dreadnoughts, Asari/Salarian with three and lastly, System Alliance (humans) who have saved Destiny Ascension and has earned the Council seat due to their actions, allowing System Alliance to build three dreadnoughts, while other lesser races allowed with one dreadnought. Noting that, we have several types of ships that are much larger than their dreadnoughts and more numerous, for example, our cruisers (including light, heavy and super heavy) are considered as "dreadnought" sized ships, while our carriers, super-carriers and infinity-class warships are much larger than dreadnought size." Serenity answered.

"This is another problem, I see. We cannot limit our navy strength as we need those navy assets to protect our colonies." Harper sighed.

"I believe that it is best for us to not join Citadel council but we can formulate a plan to establish the trading with Citadel with basic technology of us?" President Winifred suggested.

"This is best course to take for future of UNSC and future of alliances to ensure the peace." Serenity replied.

"I agree with this course." Hood answered. "Anyone have any objections towards to this?"

"One problem is that we don't know how strong is those species is, so I propose to engage some recon over the species with the prowlers in case, if we ever go war against them." Admiral Danielle suggested. "After all, according to the information, they lack FTL sensor and their detection technology is below us, we can safely use prowlers with active camouflage to spy them for a week to gather information before sending Fifth fleet to meet up with System Alliance at Andromeda Galaxy."

"That is fine, it's better to know about those before we take any drastic actions in future." President Winifred agreed.

"As we have no objections towards to establishing the alliance between Citadel races so we do not have to be restricted by this ridiculous laws and treaties. Now, on other hand, I would like to propose to establish the military/trading alliance to System Alliance, since they are humans, so I suppose we can trust them at some extent, so we'll be offering basic technology and other things for now." Hood suggested. "Anyone agree with this proposal?"

Numerous 'Aye' is heard throughout the council room. "Very well, then, the meeting is adjourned. I will contact Admiral Lasky about this and tell him that he will be acting representative to our military while we will send two representatives from UEG and Covenant Alliance." Hood ordered as the meeting has been adjourned then numerous members left the room.

"Serenity, contact Admiral Lasky, please." Hood ordered as Serenity affirmed then established the connection.

April 30th, 2583

LOCATION: UNIDENTIFIED SYSTEM NEAR THE GALACTIC CORE OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY, APPROXIMATELY 10,000 LIGHT-YEARS FROM SOL SYSTEM.

UNSC Fifth fleet is sitting around near the mass relay, waiting for the orders from the FLEETCOM and High Command at Reach and Earth. UNSC _Infinity _commanded by Admiral Lasky were sitting in the middle of the Fifth fleet near the relay.

"Sir, transmission incoming from Reach, Fleet Admiral Hood is requesting to speak with you!" Communication officer bellowed.

"Affirmative, patch him in." Admiral Lasky acknowledged.

"Admiral Lasky, I have a task for you to proceed through. Your mission is to make contact with System Alliance first with Fifth within two weeks after our diplomats arrive from Sanghelios and Earth." Admiral Hood ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Admiral Lasky saluted crisply. "Good luck, you'll need it, Admiral Lasky, Admiral Hood out." Admiral Hood replied as cutting the transmission off.

April 30th, 2183

LOCATION: ARCTURUS STATION IN ARCTURUS STREAM IN ANDROMEDA GALAXY

Two days after making first contact between other human species, the meeting is called for all System Alliance military officials and Parliament officials to discuss about possible negotiations. Captain Henderson arrived to the meeting place after docking on Arcturus Station with SSV _London_.

"Hello, sirs and ma'am, I have some information bought by this First Contact with other species, to my surprise, they were humans in different national government in different galaxy, they are called as UNSC, stands as United Nation Space Command, they are military branch of the main government called UEG, standing as United Earth Government." Captain Henderson explained. Numerous official members were shocked at reveal of "Earth" in name, exactly same as System Alliance's home world. "To add that, sirs and ma'am, they have alien allies as well, they are called as Covenant Alliance consisting of multiple races. Information about them is being forwarded to your omni-tools and data-pads for further reading, sirs and ma'am."

"Tell us about their technology or warships if you have gathered enough information, Captain Henderson." Fleet Admiral Hackett asked.

"Aye, sir, I have some data on it. Now bringing it up on the screen." Captain Henderson replied as two blocky design of ship is shown in the screen.

"This is roughly 575 meters long warship, classified as heavy frigate and another dreadnought-sized ship is a one kilometer and four hundred meters long, classified as heavy cruiser by their specifications, they are heavily armored and apparently they have some kind of shielding technology. Also, their energy reading is completely different, as well, sirs, they don't use eezo, readings shows that they use antimatter reactors to compensate for large size ships without losing mobility. Also, front of the warships determines that they are using mass accelerators, possibly more powerful, judging by their size and usage of antimatter reactor, sir and ma'am." Captain Henderson answered. "They seem to be using their own FTL, as they are massively faster than ours as they confirmed that it took them ten days to travel 10,000 light years from their location to trans-galactic relay located in galactic core in their galaxy."

"Antimatter reactors? That is beyond our capabilities of reactor technology!" Admiral Nitesh Singh exclaimed. "Not mention that their FTL speeds are impossibly fast!"

"Nonetheless, are they willing to negotiate with us to establish the alliance?" Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard asked.

"Yes, ma'am, they are willing to and also they know about Citadel Council, they wish to form alliance with us first then them. They said that it will take a week to prepare their diplomats and they are waiting for you to disclose the location to have a meeting point." Captain Henderson answered.

"I, Admiral Anderson and Minister Jameson will be handling this negotiation then have Fifth and Fourth Fleet to meet them at their location while Third and Sixth Fleet are tasked with defending Arcturus Station in case. Then First Fleet, Second Fleet will be allocated with defense of our homeworld for now and rest of them patrolling our borders." Fleet Admiral Hackett replied. "Good, then it is decided. We shall be meeting with those people in two weeks. Dismissed."


	4. Author Note

Hello, folks, I apologize for not updating my story, as I was extremely busy with the life. At right now, I am free for a while, so I am working on third chapter (also I'm also updating chapter 2.5 for prowler work as one or two reviews suggested, as I forgotten on how UNSC works with new territory, so they usually send prowlers after it, so I'll include that to gather information during a week before meeting with System Alliance.)

Also, I have decided that I don't need to include SPARTAN-IIs to this fanfiction, as I believe that they are much needed in UNSC territory, so I decided that I will be using some of SPARTAN-IIIs like Rosenda-A344 and some of sensible SPARTAN-IVs like Thorne and others. Sound good enough? If so, let me know.

Furthermore, I have reviewed all reviews from numerous folks, I realized that they are right, I need to work on my grammar mistakes, so I will be updating it consistently as soon as I find a proper beta reader. And for that reason, I'm actually deaf, so it makes sense that ASL is my first language while English is my second language, as most of deaf people aren't known for having superb grammar skills, probably average at best or less, depending where they have received their education from. I have gotten education through primary school, not deaf institutions where they are known for providing lower levels of education due to misleading belief that deaf people wouldn't able to achieve this higher level of education.

So again, forgive me for that grammar errors that you may find in my fanfiction where I will do my best to fix it and provide it to beta reader in future to ensure that it does not happen again. Please notify me if you notice any more errors. I'm more than happy to hear your criticisms and hope to improve my fanfiction overall.

EDIT: I am considering about adding one SPARTAN-III to Shepard's team during ME 2 (of course, UNSC will recognize that Collectors are serious threat and also want to watch the Cerebus, so I think Rosenda-A344 (its fate is unknown which I can use it for character and story development) which she is perfect for this mission as IIRC, Rosenda was there to replace Emile if there is counter-insurgency missions, which I think it is perfect for Shepard's mission. Since she is blank state, which I can freely make story from it after all.


	5. Good News

I managed to find my data as I had to check my hard drive again to make sure.

I will be posting an interlude chapter, maybe 2.5 for short chapter where it involves with spying mission and introduction of SPARTAN-IV team led by an SPARTAN-III as I mentioned earlier in my first author note.

Furthermore, I fixed my all chapters with correcting dialogue system and few minor grammar fixes, Let me know if I made any errors.

Chapter 2.5 should be up fairly soon.


	6. Interlude

June 1st, 2583

LOCATION: XM-029 ASTEROID OUTPOST BASE IN CENTURY SYSTEM, HAWKING ETA CLUSTER AT 2,000 LY FROM GALACTIC CORE.

UNSC _Mugetsu_, a Sahara-class prowler docked with a small shipyard station inside of an asteroid. Captain Gunderson was calmly sitting in his chair, sipping his hot coffee cup, awaiting for report from his officer.

"Sir, I have a complete report on refits that we have received on our ship, shall I describe it?" Lieutenant Odin replied.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant Odin." Captain Gunderson ordered.

"Well, sir, since we have received refits since several days ago, we have received improved weapons system such as 4x XEV10-Matos Nonlinear Pulse Lasers, for improved anti-fighter defense, 2x XEM20 G/GNR SPARTAN Laser Cannon, powerful enough for destroying frigate-sized ship and XM442 HORNET mines for added active camouflage, more powerful in nuclear yield, upping from 30 megaton to 75 megatons. We also have received upgrades to our battle plate, to modern standards of: Titanium-B2, reversed from Forerunner technology, providing superior protection and higher resistance against plasma weaponry/particle weaponry at some degree then installed new experimental hard-light shielding system, far superior to energy shields that most of frigates and destroyers still use but slightly inferior to cruisers and larger classification-type ships, allowing us to withstand up to four plasma torpedoes or two-point-five second continuous energy beam from energy projector before its shields failing. Experimental FTL device was installed giving us higher FTL speeds, up to 1250 LY per day, compared to most of Navy assets capped at 1,000 and improved precision jumps, allowing us to commence FTL strafing at limited degree." Lieutenant Odin finished.

"That is impressive upgrades, as it'll be critical essential for our high risk mission at Andromeda Galaxy." Captain Gunderson replied. "Furthermore, how long until we are ready to depart for Andromeda Galaxy?"

"In a couple of hours, as we need to do tests to make sure everything's green to go. Also, we have gotten a SPARTAN-IV team led by a SPARTAN-III issued by ONI to work with us, sir." Lieutenant Odin answered.

"Would you like them to meet you at the bridge?" Lieutenant Odin asked.

"Yes, tell them to come to my bridge." Captain Gunderson answered as Lieutenant Odin affirmed his order.

The bridge door opened, revealing a SPARTAN-IV team led by a SPARTAN-III, walking to where Captain Gunderson is located. They stood at attention immediately when Captain Gunderson turned around.

"At ease, Spartans. It is honor to meet you, SPARTANs, please introduce yourselves for sake of courtesy." Captain Gunderson ordered as Spartans eased their stance.

"Yes, sir. My name is Lt. Rosenda-A344, a SPARTAN-III. I am leader of this team called Ghost, as our specialization is to gather information &amp; conduct sabotage missions if needed to." Rosenda responded in curt manner.

"Interesting, according to this information, you were originally selected to be in NOBLE Team when there is counter-insurgency as Emile-A239 were unsuited for this kind of work." Captain Gunderson replied in his raised eyebrows.

"Yes, sir. I was to be replacement of Emile-A239 when there is counter-insurgency missions but when Covenant attacked Reach, I was stationed at Earth for classified missions." Rosenda answered as Captain Gunderson nodded.

"I see, please continue with introduction of your teammates, then." Captain Gunderson replied as Rosenda-A344 nodded, gesturing to his teammates to introduce their selves.

"My name is Sergeant James Benko, a SPARTAN-IV, as I am second-command under Lt. Rosenda-A344. That is Corporal Maddison Jenkins and Nathan Dee, sir." James saluted.

"Good, now you should be aware that we have a high-priority mission to partake, as our objective is to gather information on those nations in Andromeda to determine if they are threat or not. Any questions?" Captain Gunderson asked.

"Sir, if you don't mind, how is possible that we have another humans in other galaxy? It doesn't make sense at all, sir." James wondered.

"That is a good question but unfortunately, I do not know. Even our best scientists are still stupefied at this discovery so far." Captain Gunderson answered. "Furthermore, perhaps we should retire for now as we must prepare for this mission, so you are dismissed, Spartans."

Team Ghost stiffenly stood at attention then immediately saluted, turning around and walked to the elevator door.

"Well, that was interesting." Captain Gunderson mused to himself. "Are we prepared to leave, Lieutenant Odin?" Captain Gunderson asked.

"Yes, sir. We are ready to leave." Lieutenant Odin replied.

"Good, get our ship moving immediately and go to that relay located in galactic relay. Notify me if there is any problem, Lieutenant Odin." Captain Gunderson ordered as Lieutenant Odin affirmed his order. The ship shuddered as it started to move out from the asteroid base then opened the slipspace portal.


End file.
